@jace26 wrote:
Hi all,
Looking for some help with a crash analysis on an octo-quad plane config. It was an interesting flight to say the least, but here is the big picture:
In Auto mode VTOL take off climb to 100m, transition to cruise flight where about 32 seconds after 100% throttle application the push motor goes into thermal protection and drops output to 60%. aircraft continues around the pattern as planned, losing altitude and airspeed, which we noticed and half expected as we had seen this issue before and where actively trying to find a good esc/motor/prop combo for this aircraft. Pilot tried to wait for the aircraft to come around to the upwind leg to detransition back to vtol, but it became apparent that the aircraft was going to run out of altitude before making it around and so the pilot sent the aircraft into qloiter mode after rolling out on base leg (left cross wind ~6knots). At this point the aircraft starts the detransition normally, its always rather aggressive (tips on reducing this would be appreciated), but nothing unusual occurred until the aircraft appears to begin a wing rock where it loses control and eventually ends up upside down in the grass.I have some suspicions as to why the aircraft failed to complete the detransition back to vtol but I am biased based on past experience with this aircraft and would like a set of fresh eyes to look through things and help ID the root cause(s). To be clear, the push motor power reduction is a factor we already understand (for purpose of this discussion) and we expected the aircraft to be able to switch back into VTOL successfully despite this (it has done so on multiple occasions).
Your opinions, conjectures, and observations are much appreciated!
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